that heart, which beats harder
by wayjun
Summary: 200 years ago, the world was invaded by creatures called Shadows, and humanity was brought to the brink of destruction. Jounouchi, a member of the anti-Shadow forces, is completing a patrol with the rest of his team when his car breaks down. In the town where it is being repaired, the team meets Malik, who is hiding something very important... abo dynamics. Irateshipping.
1. Chapter 1

"Hey! Jounouchi! Get your ass over here and help me!" Honda yelled, waving his hand for emphasis. His other hand was deep in the bowels of their team's car's hood, searching for the cap to the oil container. Normally, his duty was to keep the team's guns combat-ready, but he served as the general mechanic in a pinch and what a pinch this was. Their car had stopped running, despite being fueled by Shadow magic, a quarter of a mile back, and the nearest outpost was half a mile out.

"Don't 'hey' me!" Jounouchi yelled in response, but he hopped off the rock he had been resting on all the same. Keeping watch for Shadows was Mai's forte, but Jounouchi wanted to smack something around, and the weak Shadows that skulked around these parts were the perfect targets for his frustration. "I'm coming, I'm coming," he said, to stop Honda from yelling any more.

Honda turned to Jounouchi as best he could, what with his arm stuck in the car, and said, "I need you to help me find the cap to the oil container." He gestured at the maze of car parts.

"How did you lose that?" All the same, Jounouchi stuck his own arm into the depths of the car to help search for the cap. "I thought that it was attached to the container itself."

"How should you know? You never help fix the car." It was true―Jounouchi couldn't recount the last time he had helped repair the car. Then again, Jounouchi had a shitty memory.

Jounouchi frowned and set about complaining as he searched. "Ah, come on! I'm helping you with it now, aren't I? Gimme some credit here!"

"I'll give you credit when you find the cap," Honda retorted, sweating from the heat of the midday sun and the sun-baked car.

Feeling around with his fingers, Jounouchi happened upon something that was loose and not smooth. He grabbed it and pulled it out of the car, triumphantly waving the cap about. "See this little guy?"

"Don't lose it again!" Honda said, and reached to wrest the cap from Jounouchi's grasp before he accidentally launched it into the shrubbery. He screwed the cap back on with a sigh of relief. "...That doesn't solve the big problem of the car not working."

"It doesn't?" Jounouchi asked, yet he didn't stop jumping up and down in celebration.

"No, of course it doesn't! We're still going to have to push the car all the way to the next outpost."

"Damn it!"

Honda leaned back against the hood of the car, after having closed it, and looked to the sky to see Mai catching an updraft and flying in wide, lazy circles above them. He waved to her, motioning to the Shadow that it was yet again time to push the car. "It's car-pushing time again."

"Otogi, stop fiddling with your traps and come help or we'll leave you here!" Jounouchi yelled at the team's trap specialist. He wouldn't leave any of his team behind, and they all knew it, but he liked to threaten them, jokingly, with it. Even if his team consisted of four humans, including himself, and a Shadow, they were bonded closely as a Pack. No matter what the other teams thought of Mai, the sole Shadow, he would take her side every single time.

Otogi shoved what he had been working on, a trap for enemy Shadows, into his pack, and got over to the car. "We pushing this thing again?" He looked at the car with clear distaste..

"Yup," Jounouchi said, as Mai gracefully landed nearby.

Mai merged her wings back into her arms, and stepped forward to do her part to push the car. She couldn't just fly over to the outpost and fetch someone who could fix the car because most places were highly suspicious of Shadows, whether they purported to the friendly or not, even if they carried Kaiba Corp. identification. It would be dangerous for the humans to split up; any Shadow with an infection profile of over 30% could cause major problems. Mai was at 64%, enough to handle the weak Shadows by herself.

Anzu, having been resting in the shade of a tree, came over and took her place at the car. "When we get to the outpost, can we stay a day or two?"

"Dinner first," Jounouchi said, as he pushed the car.

As they reached the barricades surrounding the outpost, a guard came out from inside. "Do you have identification?" Another guard had a gun pointed at the group; one could never be too cautious in these times.

"Right here," Jounouchi said and pulled out several pieces of paper that certified them as part of the official anti-Shadow forces, funded by Kaiba Corp.. "We've got a Shadow with us, and you can test the rest of us."

The guard cautiously reached for the papers through a small window next to the entrance, as if they would leap up and bite him. "...These seem to be in order, but are you sure you need to bring that Shadow here?" Despite, it seemed, Jounouchi's best efforts, the team's paperwork was always in perfect order, thanks to Anzu.

"Yeah! Mai's an important part of the team, we can't leave her outside."

"Then, if you're absolutely certain, you may enter," the guard said, and motioned to the other guard to open the gate.

The team entered with little fanfare, as they were accustomed to. They weren't one of the more famous teams, the ones that would hunt down entire nests of Shadows, or the ones that made dramatic rescues, but one of the regular patrolling teams. They also weren't Yugi or Ryou, who only ventured out of the capital when a 90% or higher hostile Shadow appeared, whose appearance warranted running away _really fast_. On the other hand, it was unusual for a Shadow to be part of an anti-Shadow team, for obvious reasons, yet Mai had cemented her place on Jounouchi's. She supposed that curious locals were part and parcel of being on the team and took it in stride.

Cars were also rare, as most were rendered non-functional after the Invasion, so people of all sorts came out to gawp at theirs. It had been created by Kaiba Corp., as all of their equipment had been. Jounouchi liked to pretend that Kaiba himself had worked on it so that he could blame someone when the car malfunctioned yet again.

"Uh...I forgot to ask, but where's your mechanic?" Jounouchi temporarily stopped pushing the car and sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"We've got two, actually. We're lucky like that." The guard pointed to some far off building. "You'll be wanting Malik, he's the one that specializes in things that aren't household appliances."

"Thanks, man." He sighed as he gestured to the rest of his team to begin pushing the car again, this time in the direction of the mechanic.

Malik removed the screwdriver he had been holding in his mouth when he heard the bell in the front of his shop ringing. He had been working on his baby―a motorcycle from before the Invasion that had somehow, miraculously, not entirely decayed. He put his tools back where they belonged, as there was no sense in leaving them where they could be tripped over, especially by people who weren't used to working in a garage. He made his way to the front of his shop without hurrying.

"Yes?" he asked, looking over the crew in front of his shop. He immediately noted that one was a Shadow, less powerful than he was, for sure, but definitely stronger than one of the weaker ones that roamed the outskirts of the frontier town. He must have been so engrossed with his motorcycle that he neglected to sense her. Affixing his gaze on her, he narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly. The Shadow raised an eyebrow. The rest were human through and through, though it was a slight bit unusual for three human Alphas to be able to tolerate each other without a mitigating influence.

The three male Alphas stood around sniffing the air and not answering him. "Hello?" Malik tried again, looking directly at the blond Alpha this time. He knew why exactly why the Alphas were trying to scent him and he was more than a fair bit miffed about it. He resisted the urge to slap them out of it, even if Mariku was encouraging him to do so.

"I, uh, I mean we, need a car fixed?" an Alpha, presumably the leader of the group, said, a faint blush on his cheeks. Oh, good, they weren't here to harass him because they heard that there was an unattached omega in town, Malik just happened to be the only mechanic nearby that fixed vehicles.

"I assume that it's the one behind you." Malik peered around the group, trying to hide his excitement. Cars were a rarity in this day and age; oh, sure, he could find the rusted remnants of one if he looked hard enough, yet he had only seen working ones from a distance. To work on one after so many years….

The Alpha nodded. "I'm Katsuya Jounouchi, and these jerks behind me are Hiroto Honda and Ryuji Otogi." Jounouchi dodged Otogi and Honda's whacks to the back of his head. "That there's Anzu Mazaki, and behind her is Mai Kujaku. She's a Shadow, and if you have a problem with that…," he trailed off. If this omega took issue with Mai, he didn't know what he would do.

Malik tilted his head at the Al-no, Jounouchi, straight up introducing Mai as a Shadow, but made no comment of it. It would have been hypocritical, after all. "I am Malik Ishtar. Please refer to me as Malik." He held out his hand for a handshake.

Jounouchi and the other Alphas perked up at that. Going straight to first name basis with an omega...what a heady feeling that was. Anzu resisted the urge to put her face in her hands. Of course the Alphas, minus Mai, would jump at the chance to get closer to an omega. Jounouchi seemed like the first to recover from the trance the omega had them in, and reached out to shake Malik's hand. Unfortunately for him, Otogi and Honda also reached for Malik's hand a second later. They crashed into each other in their rush and fell to the ground.

Malik looked on with part amusement and part irritation, and turned to Mai and Anzu, who seemed to be at least a little bit more sensible. Mai stepped forward and shook his hand, but no flash of recognition showed on her face; after all, Malik was suppressing his Shadow percentage, so even if they tested his blood for traces of Shadow, only a small amount would be found. Anything below 15% was considered to be a non-Shadow, whether it be a plant, animal, or human, yet only Shadows above 30% could infect another living being.

"Hey!" Jounouchi squawked when he saw that Mai had been the first to shake the omega's hand. He stumbled forward from where he had been tangled with up Otogi and Honda and eagerly shook Malik's hand.

"If you're quite done, I'd like to have a look at your car." Malik was beyond miffed now and was edging into outright irate. He stepped around Jounouchi to reach the car. It was a large car, covered in Shadow magic-enhanced armor, but Malik was confident that he could repair it if he didn't need any spare parts. "I see. I need help," a lie, "moving your car into the garage." In reality, Malik was strong enough to move the car, but he did not want to give the team a hint to his true nature, nor did he want to reveal his strength just yet.

Honda, Otogi, and Jounouchi perked up at this, and rushed forward to help him. Mai and Anzu followed at a more sedate pace. Once they had pushed the car out of the street and into the garage, Malik shooed them out and told them that they could return in a few hours to check in on his progress.

"Wow. There's an omega without an Alpha or Beta here," Jounouchi said as soon as he thought that the group was out of Malik's hearing range. They weren't, but Malik wasn't about to dash out of his garage to tell them that. "Can you guys believe it?"

Unattached omegas were a rarity when the mantra was "live fast, die young," and it didn't help that they were under ten percent of the population in the first place. They were not allowed in combat positions, yet an omega with knowledge of self-defense wasn't looked-down upon. It just wasn't thought necessary. Yugi and Ryou were the only other unattached-to-an-Alpha omegas that Jounouchi knew of, and they certainly weren't restricted from combat; he suspected that them being eldritch abominations of Shadows had something to do with it.

"Yeah, what's he doing all the way out in the middle of nowhere?" Honda asked, and he couldn't fathom why an omega would choose to live out in the boondocks, when they could live, protected, in one of Kaiba Corp.'s impressive walled cities.

"I don't know, but do you know what this means for us?" Otogi seemed to think that he was in the running for Malik's affections, a hit far from the mark. He waggled his eyebrows. "It means that we have a chance." He didn't.

"Wait, _we_ have a chance? I think you mean that I have a chance!" Jounouchi declared, proudly pointing to his chest. Anzu and Mai exchanged a glance.

Mai was uninterested romantically in all male-identifying people, whether they be Alpha, Beta, or omega, and Anzu, being a Beta, was mostly uninfluenced by Malik's scent. Sure, an omega's scent had an effect on all designations, but it was merely calming for Betas and other omegas. Only Alphas were so affected that they would lose their heads and drop everything to flirt, but only if they were otherwise attracted to the omega in question. It was no surprise to them that Otogi, Honda, and Jounouchi had reacted the way they did, for they knew that the three in question were bisexual in regards to secondary genders. Still, it was frustrating, if nothing else.

"Maybe we could get some lunch?" Anzu tried, attempting to draw the topic away from Malik. She wasn't particularly hungry, even after pushing the car, but she knew that Jounouchi was never one to turn down a meal.

"Lunch? Yeah, sure, after I knock some sense into these idiots," Honda said, rounding on Jounouchi and Otogi.

Jounouchi swatted at Honda, nothing too strong, of course, but enough to get a response. "No way you'll be able to beat me," which was true, "'cause I'm the best," which was not. Honda was the firearms specialist of the group, while Jounouchi prefered to fight the Shadows with an enchanted sword and his fists, if it came to that.

"You going to try?"

"Hell yeah!" Jounouchi's stomach grumbled. "Uh, maybe after lunch."

Several hours later, after they had located a small mom-and-pop grocery store that sold pre-made food, they were sated and ready to see if Malik had completed the repairs.

Jounouchi rang the bell in the front of Malik's shop, and started to wait, bouncing from one foot to the other. He was anxious and excited to meet the omega again, and perhaps smell more of that entrancing scent. The door opened to Malik, who looked a bit peeved already.

"Who was it that kept on driving when the check engine light was on?" Malik asked, arms crossed over his chest. The car itself wasn't in too bad of a shape, and, quite luckily, he wouldn't have to order new parts for it to be functional again. Still, there had been completely avoidable wear-and-tear on it.

"Uh," Jounouchi said, smartly. He had placed a piece of tape over the light and called it good enough. "I did?"

"That's why your car broke down. When a light comes on that is supposed to stay off, you go _get it fixed_ , not ignore it," Malik said. What he would do with people who just wouldn't pay attention to things like that he didn't know, though Mariku suggested that he sacrifice them to the darkness. Mariku was pointedly ignored.

Jounouchi rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. Getting chewed out by an attractive omega was not high on his list of priorities, and Honda and Otogi were bound to rib him about this later. "Anyways, how much is the fix?"

"For something like this? I won't have to order new parts, and it was relatively quick, so it won't cost that much." Malik debated on how much to charge the group. On one hand, they were part of the anti-Shadow forces and could afford a high price, on the other, he would be receiving a strongly-worded letter from Kaiba Corp. if he did so, and, on one of the multitudes of tentacles that his true form had, he could probably get away with it what with the besotted look on Jounouchi's face. He decided to try for a somewhat high price that was still reasonable. "It will be 300 dollars."

"What? That's cheap…" Jounouchi trailed off. Usually the team managed to nigh-on wreck the car and cost Kaiba Corp. thousands of dollars in repair costs. Kaiba himself had once accused them of doing it on purpose just to spite him.

A horrified expression flashed over Malik's face. Just how badly did they treat their car if 300 was lowballing it…? Mariku cackled at him from within their head. "Alright then," he managed, "though that does raise the question of how you'll pay. I don't have an ID with Kaiba Corp., so you can't credit it to my account." Living out in an outpost and having no record of his birth that would not out him as a Shadow granted him no opportunities to get an ID.

"That's strange. Everyone who is born into even an outpost is issued one at birth," Mai said. Malik knew that she definitely suspected that something was up, but was either too polite to mention it or did not trust her senses. He hoped for the first one, which meant that she would keep mum until he could talk to her later.

"I was not born in an outpost, so I was never given an ID," Malik said. Both the premise and the conclusion were correct, but it was a misleading statement. "My family never trusted the government much." It wasn't a lie. They had lived underground for three thousand years, up until Mariku killed Malik's (his) father and the family had tried to cover it up. There had been a court battle when their father's body was discovered, but Mariku's/Malik's actions had been ruled to be in self-defense.

"Even so, your family should have gotten you one when you were a child," Mai pressed. So it wasn't politeness that held her back from asserting that Malik was a Shadow, it was that he was suppressing it.

"Should have is far from did," Malik retorted, though there was no bite in it. He didn't want to insult paying customers. "Besides, they're in a completely different area now. In fact, I don't know where they are now," he lied. In reality, he had a Shadow magic-powered cell phone that he had preserved since the Invasion that he could use whenever he wanted to to talk to Rishid or Isis.

"Why don't we get you an ID?" Jounouchi said, without really knowing what that entailed. All he knew is that Malik could work on what he wanted to in one of the walled cities without the constant threat of Shadows attacking. "We'll vouch for ya!"

"You're saying this before even testing me to see if I'm a Shadow?" It was standard protocol to test anyone you were traveling with; Kaiba Corp. even held a biannual event where they gave out free testing machines. Just add a little bit of Shadow magic, an amount so small that anyone could do it, and the machine would activate. Malik had been slightly skeptical of how enthralled Jounouchi was with him before, but now…. Taking advantage of his trust would likely cause both Mai and Anzu to be very suspicious of him, though, and that he would like to avoid.

Jounouchi quickly patted his pockets, looking for the testing machine. "Uh, who has it?" he asked, once he ascertained that it wasn't in his possession.

"I've got it," Anzu said, holding the flat, palm-sized machine aloft. She set it on the counter and activated it. A beam of light shot out of the machine, towards the ceiling.

Malik was confident that he was disguising his true nature as a Shadow well enough that he immediately stuck his hand into the ray of light. The only thing that would destroy his facade as a human would be Mariku switching and deciding to make trouble, but he hadn't wrested control of their body in a while. The machine took only a little while before displaying 6%, well within the normal range for a human. Going too low might be cause for suspicion, so Malik let a little bit of the infection be detected.

The rest of the group leaned over to check Malik's infection profile; there was a collective sigh of relief when they saw the 6%. Jounouchi pumped a fist in victory and snatched the machine back up. "See? I knew that he wasn't a Shadow! And even if he was, he hasn't attacked anyone, right?" Human-friendly Shadows were tolerated by most of society, but only barely. If they showed even a hint that they were violent, they were likely to get attacked by humans, so many of them simply stayed away from humans. It didn't help that the only Shadows above 50% infected could transform into a human form, and it took full team of trained humans with a Shadow magic-enchanted weapon to take such a powerful Shadow down.

Malik raised his eyebrows. "You were doubting me?"

"Nah, man, we trusted you," Honda said.

"You volunteering for the test just confirmed our trust," Anzu said, nodding.

Mai crossed her arms over her chest. She had suspected that something was up with Malik, but now that the test had revealed that he was a human, she didn't know what to think. "Well, we still have our circuit to complete."

Jounouchi looked thoughtful. "Wait, that's true. I guess we'll just, uh, take him along?"

"Couldn't you pick me up on the way back?" Malik asked. That would give him time to decide if he truly wanted to live in the city.

"No, our route is a circle," Anzu said, and held up a hand and gestured in a circle with the other, "we start at Domino City, go through a bunch of outposts, and arrive back at Domino." Right then, they were a quarter through with their circuit.

"I still don't know if I really want to live in the city." Malik leaned back on the counter and crossed his arms. "I'm used to life here already." Relative to his lifespan, his time in the small town was but a blink, but he was comfortable there. Even food was not a problem. He had only to give hint that he was hungry and within the hour there was a dead deer dumped at his doorstep. It was one of the many (only?) pluses of living in a town that relied on hunting and farming for sustenance and was also chock-full of Alphas.

"Fair enough," Mai said, ready to leave it be for now. There was still something suspicious about Malik, despite the test's results.

Jounouchi did a double-take, looking from Malik to Mai, and said, "But you haven't lived in a city yet, right? It might be fun."

"No," Malik said, leaving "not since before the Invasion" unsaid. He shook his head. "No, I haven't."

"Well, then, why don't you come with us? You can see the world while we're at it, too," Jounouchi suggested. He was happy to be in close quarters with an omega, and the thought of the omega accompanying them was beyond exciting...even if he would have to protect him.

"I'll think about it. It's getting dark, and I suggest that you find the inn; it's just a couple of blocks from here," Malik said, pointing in its direction. "You'll have my decision in the morning." The statement had an air of finality about it.

The team was eating breakfast around a table in the inn when a crash sounded in the distance.

"Did you guys hear that?" Jounouchi asked, pausing with his fork in the air. A roar and the sound of the town's siren going off. "Shadows!" He set his fork down, and quickly stood up, the chair falling over behind him. He rushed out of the inn towards the source of the roar.

So named because they were a vicious shadow of their previous self, Shadows were the monsters that drove humanity to the brink of extinction. Only able to be killed with the use of Shadow magic-enchanted weaponry, the majority posed a major threat to even a properly-equipped human. The only upside was that some, like Mai, chose to ally themselves with humans.

"Don't just dash out without telling us where you're going!" Anzu admonished. Getting split up was one of the quickest ways to die to a Shadow, and the habit of rushing in headfirst was usually beat out of new recruits plenty quickly, but it seemed that Jounouchi had somehow avoided that part of training. She too got up, but she pushed in her chair and waved to the innkeep before heading out.

Otogi, Honda, and Mai quickly followed suit and dashed to catch up with Jounouchi, Honda readying his gun as he ran. Mai launched herself into the air, wings beating hard as she scanned the area for Shadows. "Straight ahead!" she yelled, hovering in the air to point in the direction of the invading Shadows. They had yet to breach the walls of the outpost, but were making quite a dent in the Shadow magic shield and it wouldn't be long before they broke through.

"Got it!"

Once they reached the wall surrounding the town, the guards hurried them to the top of the it, minus Otogi, who stayed on the ground to ready a trap should any Shadow make it inside the town. Jounouchi had his sword unsheathed by the time the rest of the team arrived and was staring at a spined Shadow. All Shadows varied in their attributes; one could breath fire while another was venomous, and yet others could fly or run at impossible speeds. There was no one solution for all of them.

Honda flicked the safety off on his gun and shouted to Jounouchi, "Back up's here!" He took aim at one of the slower-moving Shadows. It was a small horde, about 7 to 10 Shadows in total, but if even one made it into the town….

"I was wondering why it was taking you so long!"

"Maybe you should wait for your long-range fighters before waving your sword around," Mai said, taking stock of the assembled Shadows. She couldn't detect any above the 40% mark, but that didn't mean it would be an easy fight. Even the weakest Shadow was tougher than any single human could ever hope to be.

Of the team, only Jounouchi was restricted to melee combat; everyone else either used guns (Honda) or had at least a little magic. Even Anzu, who fought with her fists, mixed magic into her strikes. Being magically disinclined would normally be a detriment, but Jounouchi managed to be _so bad_ at magic that even the Shadows' magic had little effect on him.

"Hey! At least I was the first one here!" Jounouchi turned to face Mai.

Mai alighted on the wall and put her hands on her hips. "And what would you do without any magic?" It was a fair point. Jumping into the throng would be beyond dangerous and even Jounouchi wasn't that headstrong.

"Uh...anyways, you guys need to start helping me."

"With what? Standing around being useless? You aren't doing shit," Honda teased before he fired a few shots into the crowd of Shadows. Even with both the bullets and the gun being enhanced with magic, his shots barely managed to make a dent in the Shadow's armor.

"It doesn't look like you're being any more useful," Jounouchi shot back, trying to defend himself, "what are you shooting with, a pea-shooter?" He peered over the wall and prepared himself for the coming battle. If the universe decided to cooperate that day, then the Shadows would remain on the outside and allow themselves to be picked off by the magic-users. Even if the Shadows made it inside they would have to go through a gauntlet of traps, courtesy of Otogi. Of course, when was the universe ever on his side?

The town's guards looked askance at the team. They had heard that the anti-Shadow forces were powerful enough to take down the weaker Shadows with ease, but did they have to joke while doing it…?

Honda made a rude gesture at Jounouchi, though he kept his gun trained on the Shadows. "You're the one who requisitioned us these weapons you know. It's kinda your fault if they don't work."

For the upteenth time that week, Anzu tried to resist the urge to slap her face with her palm. "Can we concentrate on the Shadows, please?" She was launching a volley of small but potent balls of magic at the Shadows, enough to distract them from tearing an entrance in the wall. Most of the Shadows were the size of a horse or smaller, so they couldn't tear down the entire wall, but that didn't mean that they weren't dangerous.

Suddenly, the Shadow magic barrier surrounding the town collapsed and the Shadows' efforts renewed. Without the magic barrier, the wall was only a slight deterrent and the Shadows would soon invade the town. "Oh, shit!" Jounouchi shouted as one of the Shadows breached the wall.

"Otogi, get out of there!" he shouted, wanting to make sure the member of their team least equipped for close combat was safe.

"On it!" Otogi yelled back, and hurried to scale the wall to join with the rest of the team. His traps, he hoped, would take care of at least one of the Shadows and injure the rest, making it easy for them to be picked off.

The first Shadow ambled through, carefully investigating its surroundings with its long snout. If Jounouchi had to guess, he would say that it looked like the lovechild of an anteater and a crawdad, only the size of a couch. The team had faced down larger Shadows before, but size was not correlated, positively or negatively, with strength.

Anzu temporarily stopped throwing magic at the Shadows on the outside and activated the sensor that would tell her approximately how strong the Shadow was. Luckily, the Shadow did not notice the beam of light that reflected off its back. "32%," Anzu said, and quickly re-pocketed the machine.

The almost joking atmosphere changed immediately. All it took for a human, plant, or animal to become infected was to come into contact with the body fluids of a Shadow above 30%. Even a scratch could infect someone, if the Shadow had not cleaned under their fingernails. Kaiba Corp. had developed an expensive-to-produce vaccine that worked up to 70%, but anything above that...well. The entire team, minus Mai, had been vaccinated, but they would bet dollars-to-donuts that the townspeople had not.

Mai, who had known that the Shadows had the potential to infect people, had been dutifully striking out with bolts of magic. One of her targets was almost down, and she counted that as a success; one less Shadow was one less Shadow.

The Shadow in the town wandered straight onto the magic caltrops that Otogi had scattered on the ground. The traps he had set up would only trigger for a hostile Shadow, leaving the rest of the group to go full ham. A second Shadow appeared through the hole in the wall, but this time it charged ahead, leaving the other behind. One of Otogi's traps triggered, leaving the Shadow caught in a net of magic. "There we go," Otogi said, smirking a bit. His job was not the most exciting, but it had the potential to have the greatest effect.

The ropes of the net strained against the Shadow's efforts, and, before it could free itself, Jounouchi hopped down from the wall and onto the roof of a nearby building. From the building, he jumped down and onto the bound Shadow, plunging his sword through its carapace and deep into its body. It screamed in rage and pain, alerting the rest of the horde that there was resistance. The first Shadow to make it into the town turned towards Jounouchi and tried to rush him, but was intercepted by Anzu, who tried to sweep the Shadow off of its feet with a well-placed kick.

"We just told you not to go rushing off!" Anzu yelled, while trying to avoid getting sliced by the Shadow's pincers. She parried a blow, her own natural strength backed up with magic. She was the sole hand-to-hand fighter of the group; it was rare to be a melee fighter, and even rarer that a melee fighter could also use magic, but she managed to be competent at both. Close combat was, for some strange reason, more effective than long-range, but it was very much not as safe.

The other Shadows at the gate tried to get in, but two at once proved to not be a winning strategy. Stuck in the hole, the Shadows wriggled this way and and that, trying to get through, yet that only provided an opportunity for Otogi, Mai, and Honda to attack them from a safe position.

"Sorry!" Jounouchi yelled, obviously not sorry at all. He wrested his sword out of the body of Shadow and a spurt of dark blood followed it. He looked down at the blood in disgust; getting dirty was part of the job, but that didn't mean that he had to like it. Setting about hacking at the Shadow's neck, this time not helped by gravity, he got a nagging feeling that he was forgetting something.

A swarm of lesser Shadows flew above the team's heads, and a look of horror crossed their faces. Jounouchi paused to take a quick assessment of the situation and determined that aerial support was definitely needed. "Mai!"

"Already on it!" Mai launched herself off the wall and into the air, wings pumping furiously to catch up with the swarm. "They're only about 20%!" she yelled as she climbed into the sky.

Jounouchi considered this for a moment and then continued in his assault on the Shadow. The flying Shadows were not his priority; Mai was plenty reliable. When the Shadow under him breathed its last, Jounouchi wrenched his sword free and dashed over to help Anzu with defeating hers.

The Shadow was taken by surprise as Jounouchi slashed at its back, but recovered quickly as it swung its tail to try to knock him off his feet. Neither Anzu nor Jounouchi were worried about that particular Shadow, but, rather, they were anxious about the Shadows being kept at bay by Otogi and Honda.

"How much longer can you hold them off?" Anzu shouted to the pair on the wall as she dodged a blow. "This one won't take much more, but I don't know about fighting a group of them." She weaved through the strikes to place a palm on the Shadow's forehead and sent a jolt of electricity directly into its brain, killing it instantly.

The nagging feeling was back for Jounouchi, and he realized that they didn't know where Malik was. It wouldn't do to lose an omega just when they had found him. "Where did we agree to meet Malik, again?"

"His shop, why do you ask?"

Jounouchi paused to wipe at his brow. "That's really close to here, do you think he's alright?" The question of whether Malik was okay or not wouldn't have even crossed his mind had the swarm of flying Shadows not invaded.

"Yeah, probably. If he stays indoors he should be safe," Anzu responded. "Even if he's caught outside he won't be infected and he can use a wrench or something for self-defense." Shadows may be immune to most modern weaponry, but they weren't immune to good old blunt weapon trauma. It just wouldn't kill them, and therein lay the problem. One could shoot a Shadow all they wanted with mundane bullets and all that would produce would be a hassled Shadow.

They turned to face the remaining large Shadows, one of which had made it through the gate.

Malik, having made his mind up late the previous day, had gone to see his landlord. He rented the space for his shop and living quarters extremely cheaply. In exchange, Malik would fix the landlord's and his tenants' appliances and building instead of the other mechanic in town, who was known to over-charge. Him leaving would cause a dearth of reliable mechanic services in the town, but he was certain that someone else would step up to cover up the gap.

He had decided to pack light, bringing only the essentials: his weapons, both Shadow magic enchanted; a few changes of clothes; his mechanic's tools; and his refurbished motorcycle, which was currently in his garage. He didn't need to eat as often as a human did and would try to consume as little as possible on their journey.

The meeting with his landlord had gone swimmingly, though the landlord had expressed dismay that Malik was leaving, even if it was for better opportunities. In the end, he had decided to tag along with Jounouchi's group for a change of pace; he had lived in the town for the past three years, it was getting boring, and Mariku was getting antsy. So, before Mariku caused a massacre, he would leave for a more exciting life that, with any luck, would entertain them for a while. Sometimes, being nigh-immortal, or at least age-less, had its downsides.

Malik glanced outside and drew in a sharp breath when he felt the anti-Shadow barrier surrounding the town go under assault. He was strong enough that such barriers presented no problem and occasionally gave him a headache, yet he had been sure that the barrier wasn't that weak to break down all of a sudden.

"Get back inside," he said to the people who had gathered outside to bid him farewell. "I'll go notify the anti-Shadow hunters, so just wait."

"Why do you want us to go inside?" one his neighbors asked, looking around for Shadows.

A Shadow roared in the distance, and everyone, save Malik, adopted a worried expression. "That would be why." Malik was about to set off on a run when he sensed that Jounouchi's team was already out of the inn and on the move. "What are you waiting for? Get inside!" He tried to shoo the people standing around back indoors, but they remained firmly outside.

One of the people milling about asked, "What about you? What will you do?" If Malik had been an ordinary human that would be a fine and dandy question to ask, but….

"I'll be fine," Malik said, trying to reassure the townspeople, "I have a enchanted gun. If worst comes to worst I'll be able to defend myself." He neglected to mention that he also had a dagger, but he figured that a dagger that enhanced his mind-control powers was unnecessary to mention. Or at least, he didn't _want_ to talk about it.

"If you say so." Most of the people scattered to go back to their homes, though a couple of the braver ones stayed behind.

"We'll protect you, so just get inside," a burly Alpha said.

"Who is the one with an enchanted gun here? Not you," Malik snapped. He was tired of the machismo of the resident Alphas, who were always trying to one-up each other to get his attention; it was tempting to let Mariku go to town on them, but Malik had sworn to his siblings that he would use violence as a last resort only.

"What? Our guns are enchanted!" the Alpha said, obviously confused.

It was true, but Malik's gun was far more magically powerful, despite being a handgun to their rifles. "Not like mine is, so you can leave now." The Shadows approaching by air were not infected enough to infect others, but they could still kill and Malik felt an odd sense of responsibility towards the townspeople. "I'm also a better shot than you are." Earlier that year the town had held a shooting contest and Malik had swept it, what with 200 years of practice, leaving everyone in awe.

Grumbling, the Alphas hesitantly went off to their homes, leaving Malik alone in the street.

:: _Finally. I was wondering if we had to kill them as well_ ,:: Mariku said.

Malik took his gun out of its holster. :: _Why are you acting as if you didn't want to kill them? You're always up for extraneous violence_.::

Malik could feel Mariku's amusement. :: _You know me so well._ ::

The swarm of flying Shadows advanced on them, and Malik took aim at one of the larger ones. Flying targets were always hard to hit, but ones that flew in a predictable pattern he could usually shoot down. :: _Comes from having you in my head since I was a child. I might know you better than I know myself, at this point_ ::

:: _Then, have you realized your attraction to that Alpha?_ :: Mariku laughed at Malik when the latter started. :: _Come now, it's obvious._ :: Mariku was calmer, now that 200 years had passed, and more likely to tease, but that didn't mean he was any less dangerous than when he killed their father.

:: _What attraction? I don't feel any attraction towards anyone,_ :: Malik floundered.

:: _Don't you dare try to lie to_ me _. Even after all these years you still try to deny your feelings?_ :: Mariku was referencing an incident where Malik had developed a crush on a fellow omega but had not had enough courage to act on it and the other omega had gone and gotten married. Following that incident, Malik had resolved to be obvious when he was attracted to someone. He had also resolved to not fall in love any more, since, obviously, it only led to pain.

Now Malik was peeved. How dare Mariku suggest that he had _feelings_? :: _Shut up!_ :: He shot at a Shadow and avoided being clipped by another's wing.

:: _You know full well that I can't just "shut up."_ :: That wasn't exactly true―Mariku had been "gone" before and couldn't be "found" by Malik, who had promptly _freaked the fuck out._ Turns out that not having someone in your head after them being there for so long was just as bad as losing a precious friend. Mariku was also never going to let Malik live that incident down.

:: _Sometimes I wish you could._ :: Malik responded as he dodged lashing claws.

:: _Anyways,_ :: Mariku said, blowing off Malik's concerns. :: _Can I have the body now?_ :: Always eager to have control of their body in combat situations, he wanted to tear and destroy something. Luckily, after therapy and 200 years, but not 200 years of therapy, Mariku had learned to ask before switching.

Another Shadow dropped to the ground, dead, after receiving a shot to the head. Three more remained in the air around Malik. :: _No. We still need to pretend that we're human._ :: They both knew that Mariku was hilariously bad at disguising himself as a human.

:: _Because of your boyfriend_.::

:: _What!? No!_ :: Malik stumbled forward, narrowly managing to avoid being slashed by a Shadow's claws. He looked over his right shoulder at the approaching Shadow, and, before he shot at it, realized that it was only Mai.

"What are you doing outside!?" Mai called from where she hovered in the air, Shadows' blood staining her claws.

"What does it look like?" Malik asked as he nailed a Shadow in the forehead, its brain matter misting the air.

Mai swooped down and crushed one of the two remaining Shadows beneath her talons."It looks you like being an idiot." Mariku laughed at Malik again. It was becoming a theme of his day.

The last Shadow got an idea of what was coming to it, and tried, in vain, to turn tail. Malik shot through one of its four wings, tearing it from the body and sending the Shadow plummeting towards the ground. Mai took care of the rest, tearing it up. Mai didn't know it, but they were the two (three?) most powerful people in the town.

"That's the last of the flying ones," Mai said, and started to climb into the air again. "Have some sense and get indoors and let the professionals take care of it."

"I've been doing fine by myself, thank you very much." Malik flicked the safety on his gun back on, holstered it, and set off at a run towards the rest of Jounouchi's group. Mai followed at a more sedate pace, tired from hunting down the flying Shadows all over town.

:: _Hoping that none of them are injured, are you?_ :: Mariku was excited; bloodshed always had that effect on him.

:: _Yes, now can you stop asking about them? I'm still not going to let you have control of the body until we're far away from civilization._ :: Malik was still running towards the group when he sensed the presence of yet another Shadow.

:: _Heh. You care already. How disappointing._ :: No matter how many years had passed, Mariku still had trouble grasping the concept that not all people wanted to hurt them.

Malik looked around, unable to immediately locate the Shadow. That meant that the Shadow was over 50% infected and so able to turn into a human or animal to disguise itself. It also meant that the Shadow in question was one of his neighbors; Malik had been unable to tell people about the other Shadow without revealing himself. The question remained, though―was the other Shadow friendly or not?

Upon getting close enough to the team, Malik shouted, "Jounouchi! Help has arrived!"

Jounouchi was slashing at a Shadow, one of the last two remaining, when he heard Malik calling out his name. "Malik, what are you doing here!? It's not safe!"

"That is why I came―to help you!" Malik aimed his gun at the Shadow that was getting hammered by Otogi and Honda's attacks. He shot at it a few times, his bullets doing far more damage than Honda's. After all, he had been the one to enchant his own gun, and his magic far surpassed that of any human.

"I told him that it was too dangerous to remain outside, but he wouldn't listen." Then, almost offhandedly, Mai added, "He is a pretty good shot, though."

The Shadow that Malik was shooting at went down quickly, now that he had joined in on the assault. He didn't dare to try to shoot the one that Jounouchi and Anzu were concentrating on; even he wasn't confident that hit that target while managing to avoid shooting the two humans.

"Thanks," Malik said as he debated on whether to draw his dagger and finish off the last Shadow. Or, rather, the second-to-last Shadow if his neighbor proved to be hostile. He decided against it; Jounouchi and Anzu were doing fine on their own. He couldn't see any injuries on either of them, which was impressive for humans.

Jounouchi yelled as he delivered the final blow to the Shadow, decapitating it. "I mean, it's dangerous if you don't have a weapon." He looked at Malik's gun and nodded. "Honda would probably like another gun-owner to talk to."

Malik looked at Honda and Otogi, who were jumping down from the wall, and said, "Would he now."

"Uh...yeah?" Jounouchi scanned the area for more Shadows; upon not finding any he sheathed his sword, though he kept a hand on the hilt.

"I think that all of us would like to get to know you better," Anzu said as she checked her knuckle dusters for damage. "Especially the guys," she added as an aside.

Malik took a deep breath. "I was...afraid of that." He was interested in only one of "the guys" and would appreciate it if the other two backed off.

Anzu laughed as Mariku commented, :: _And we were certain that this excursion would be a_ pleasurable _one_.::

:: _Meeting hostile Shadows wasn't on my travel itinerary_ ,:: Malik responded, trying to change the topic.

:: _You know full well that was not what I was talking about._ ::

"Hey!" Jounouchi and Honda said together, while Otogi looked on, smug.

"That's what you get for being so forward," Otogi said and set about disarming the traps that had not been triggered.

Jounouchi looked affronted. "And you weren't?"

"I wouldn't call that subtle," Mai said as she shook the blood off her claws. She turned to Malik. "Don't pay attention to them."

"Wasn't planning on it."

"Nevermind that, how did you get your gun to be so powerful?" Honda asked, impressed.

Hesitant to reveal too much information, Malik said, "I enchanted it. I'm also proficient with Shadow magic, so it was easy for me to do so." Nothing in that statement was a lie, but it was misleading to a fault―he hadn't used his full powers when he had enchanted the gun, because, if he had, he might as well be wielding a ground-to-ground missile.

"What!? I got mine enchanted by some of the magicians at Kaiba Corp., a gun enchanted by some guy shouldn't be that powerful!" Honda said, a smidgen too perceptive for Malik's liking.

"I guess Kaiba Corp. has to get better magicians, then." As an afterthought, Malik added, "Also, thanks for saying that I'm 'some guy.'"

"Uh...you're welcome, I guess?" Honda looked sheepish. Everyone except for Malik and Anzu snickered at him.

The town's sirens were turned off, signaling to the townspeople that it was safe to come out again. At first, only a few of the bravest popped their heads out of their doors, and, once they found that it was safe, joined Jounouchi's team by the gate.

"If anyone has been injured by the flying Shadows, please come see Mai, Otogi, or Anzu to get healed," Jounouchi shouted above the clamor of the crowd. No one came forward, which was a relief to the team: after such a battle, their magic reserves were low.

"What about you?" someone in the crowd asked, and was backed up by others saying similar things.

"No one in our team was injured." It was miraculous, especially for their team, that no one had been hurt in the battle, but Jounouchi took his miracles when he could get them.

Malik was antsy―his Shadow neighbor was in the crowd, looking angry. There was no good reason for someone to be angry now; no shops or homes had been damaged by the battle and no one was dead or even injured. Maybe a gloryhound could find a reason, but other than that? Malik only had Mariku, who was upset that they didn't get to kill more Shadows, as an example of one slightly acceptable reason. His neighbor's attitude was beyond suspect.

"Do you think that there's more of them?" another person asked, raising their hand.

"You'll have to ask Mai," Jounouchi said, and turned towards the team's Shadow.

Mai closed her eyes for a bit and concentrated; she could sense a lot of Shadow magic near the crowd, but that could be residual amounts from when they had fought. "No, I don't believe that there are any more Shadows around here."

Malik wondered if he was the confounding problem, emanating such an aura that it prevented Mai from detecting the other Shadow. :: _No. We aren't giving off any Shadow magic_ ,:: Mariku told him, a worrying statement.

:: _Then...it's definitely him who is the source of it. Does he mean to attack now? He's not powerful enough, if we get involved, and I'm almost certain that Mai is more powerful than he is_.::

:: _The team is tired; picking them off now would be easy,_ :: Mariku countered, :: _we could do it even in human form._ :: It was true that Jounouchi and the rest were tired, but that didn't mean, in Malik's opinion, that defeating them would be an easy task for a Shadow like his neighbor.

"Do you know why the shield surrounding the town went down?" asked the innkeep.

"No, we don't. If anyone has any ideas, they're free to tell us," Jounouchi responded, and then resumed chatting with another townsperson.

Malik's Shadow neighbor tried to sneak towards Jounouchi, who had his back turned to him. :: _Well, fuck. It does look like he's going to attack Jounouchi_ ,:: Malik thought towards Mariku.

: _:I don't care, so if you-_ :: Mariku was cut off as the Shadow lunged forward, scythe-like claws extended to rend down Jounouchi's back.

"Jounouchi! Behind you!" Malik shouted. He couldn't draw his gun in this crowd, and the rest of the team was in a similar position. Letting loose with magic with so many people nearby was asking for casualties; even Malik's mind-control couldn't work on such a short notice.

Jounouchi looked behind him a half a second too late, and took a claw to his forearm. "Wha-?" he yelled as he drew his sword in a flash to arc up to meet a second blow from the Shadow. "One more!"

To their credit, the crowd gathered around the team quickly dispersed, leaving Jounouchi and the Shadow to do battle. Anzu resisted rushing in; with the range of Jounouchi's sword and how small the Shadow was, the chance of the two humans hurting each other was too high. Instead, she concentrated on keeping the crowd back.

Breathing hard as he blocked yet another blow, obvious that he was losing energy, Jounouchi decided to go on the offensive. "Everyone, back up!" His sword started to glow and give off magic.

:: _So it's been enchanted beyond our own dagger_.:: Mariku was beginning to get excited by the battle.

:: _No, it's been enchanted to do different things,_ :: Malik responded, : _:I highly doubt that his sword enhances his mind-control. That's exclusive to our dagger._ :: He also doubted that Jounouchi had any mind-control powers; he was the only being, Shadow or human, he had met so far that had that ability. Even his siblings were not able to do it.

Now that his sword was alight with magic, Jounouchi seemed to have the upper hand against the Shadow. :: _Against a Shadow like that?_ :: Malik sent.

:: _A human keeping pace with a Shadow above 50% on his own? How interesting._ :: Mariku was becoming more and more intrigued.

:: _Now are you going to continue to tease me about liking him?_ :: Malik was a slight bit exasperated.

:: _Of course_.::

After striking the final blow, Jounouchi used his sword to prop himself up as he panted in exhaustion. "Any more of you wanna come out? Cause I'm just going to take you out!" He looked around the crowd, and, as no one answered his challenge, sheathed his sword again, this time putting his back to his team.

"Is there a healer around?" Honda asked, glancing at Jounouchi's injured arm. Mai, Otogi, or Anzu normally healed the wounds the team incurred, but all three of them were magically exhausted and unable to heal even a small wound at the moment.

The people in the crowd looked at each other, and one piped up, "Malik normally heals us if we get hurt by a Shadow. We don't have a doctor in town."

"Malik? You feeling up to healing Jounouchi?" Mai asked, leaning against a lamppost to hold herself upright. Flying all around town had made her physically tired.

"Yes. It won't take long." Malik stepped forward out of the crowd and towards Jounouchi. When he reached Jounouchi, he held out his hands to the other man's arm and started to concentrate. The bone was not broken, but the bleeding was not sluggish at all. He drew forth some of his magic, and the flesh of Jounouchi's arm started to knit together. "It is done," Malik announced, when there was not even a scar to evidence the wound.

"Wow, that was fast!" Jounouchi said, flexing his arm to test if it was truly healed.

"It would have taken longer had the bone been broken, but you seem to be lucky."

"If that's settled, we should set out tomorrow. I think that everyone's tired," Anzu said, and the rest of the team nodded in agreement.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: This story takes place in North America, to the East of the Rocky Mountains. There is a reason for that. I'm still not entirely sure how ffnet works, so if there's formatting errors it's on me.

* * *

Jounouchi lazily rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he sat up in the inn's bed. He was sharing a room with Honda and Otogi, who were both still sound asleep. Stretching his arms as he stared out the window, Jounouchi debated his options; he could get up and potentially wake the others up, or he could stay and laze about in bed. He leaned back and put his arms behind his head, preparing to go back rest for just a moment longer.

Before he closed his eyes, he could had the nagging feeling that he was forgetting something. He considered it for a while and then realized that they were supposed to meet Malik in the morning. He shot out of bed; it wouldn't do to be late.

"Guys!" Jounouchi shouted, "Wake up! We hafta go get Malik!" He grabbed the covers of Honda's bed and made to tug them off when Mai popped her head into their room.

"Are you ready?" she asked. She looked around the room and then reconsidered. "You're not even awake."

"I'm awake! I'm awake!" Honda complained when the covers of his bed were rudely hauled off by Jounouchi. "You didn't have to wake me up like that." He shook his head to clear it of sleepiness.

"Be happy that I didn't go get a bucket of water," Jounouchi said and advanced on Otogi's bed. "Help me wake him up."

Otogi, already awoken by the commotion, slowly sat up and said, "Wuh? What's going on?"

"We're going to see Malik! Don't you remember?"

"What? Oh yeah!" Otogi quickly nearly leaped out of bed and looked to Jounouchi, who was conspicuously missing something. "Don't you need pants?"

"It's a bit early in your relationship to go see Malik without any pants on," Mai said from where she was standing in the doorway. She was used to the team being in a state of undress; it was like that every morning and she, as a Shadow, did not have the usual reservations that humans had about being seen without clothes on. Usually, though, the team slept in at least pajamas so that they were not caught pantsless by Shadows.

"Wait! Wait! What do you mean I don't have any pants on?" Jounouchi asked, looked down, and then realized that he hadn't gotten fully dressed yet. With furiously red cheeks, he went to his trunk, got out a pair of pants, and put them on. "It's still early in the morning!" he retorted, when he heard the others muffling snickers.

Honda, who had been getting dressed in the background, said, "We're gonna be late if you keep that up, and you're the one who woke us up." He was still grumpy from being so rudely awakened.

"If I hadn't woken you up, then we would be even later," Jounouchi retorted, picking his trunk up and making his way to the door. Mai stood aside as he left and continued to watch over the stragglers.

"Come on, man." Otogi's complaints could be heard by Jounouchi as he headed down the stairs, combat boots surprisingly quiet on the old wooden steps.

Like most days, Jounouchi was dressed in neutral, earthy tones to better blend in with the surrounding areas. He had wanted to wear brighter colors that went with his personality, but was forced to concede that it was safer to wear more camouflaging hues. His two-handed sword was at his back, and a small dagger rested at his hip; both were heavily enchanted.

The innkeep greeted them and told them that breakfast would be ready shortly. The crew settled down at a table and began to hurry up and wait. Breakfast was a short affair, and Jounouchi was soon ready to go. They bid farewell to the innkeep, who wished them the best of luck, and set off to go collect Malik.

Once again at the entrance to Malik's garage, Jounouchi eagerly rang the bell to alert Malik to the team's presence.

"Hello again," Malik said, emerging from the back of his shop, pack of clothes in hand.

"Good morning," Anzu greeted, smiling. "So, you're-"

"Coming with us?" Jounouchi interrupted, nearly bouncing up and down from excitement. He turned to Honda and Otogi and raised his hands for a high-five. The trio lept into it.

Malik raised an eyebrow at the display, but did not comment. "Yeah." Here, he nodded. "I forgot to tell you yesterday, in all of the chaos from the Shadows' attack."

"Where's the rest of your stuff? That can't be all you're planning on taking, because we're going on a long trip," Otogi said, pointing to Malik's luggage. "Don't worry about space to put your stuff. The car's enchanted to hold everything. It couldn't hold all of our shit if that weren't the case."

"You're right―this is not all that I am bringing. I have an entire motorcycle that I want to take along. It's in the garage," Malik said, nodding toward the garage. "I also want to bring extra medical supplies, because, if there are more days like yesterday, we're going to need them." He wished that Jounouchi and Anzu were not melee fighters, so that they could safely attack from afar and let him keep his powers, healing and otherwise, under wraps.

"Medical supplies? I didn't see anywhere where we could buy any while we were looking for food," Mai said, "so, more would be plenty welcome." She and Anzu were the ones responsible for keeping the team stocked up. It would be disastrous if they were stuck with their magic, which was necessary for fighting, as their sole source of healing. As it was, the two most responsible members of the team were stuck with monitoring their supplies.

"I buy them when any traveling merchant comes here; one came recently, so I have enough to last a while." Malik made to go out the door to his garage. "If you would move…?" he asked of Jounouchi.

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that," Jounouchi said, and stepped aside, crowding Honda into a corner. Malik disappeared into the garage and left his bag inside the shop.

"Watch where you're going!"

"Should we follow him?" Otogi asked and looked to where Malik had gone.

"He's planning on bringing along an entire motorcycle, so we should probably go and help him move it," Anzu said, and made her way into Malik's garage. The rest of the crew followed her shortly.

The garage looked to be recently cleaned, though there were still oil and paint stains. Malik looked to be at home there, with his leather jacket, dark cargo pants, and steel-toed boots. His gold jewelry, less than what he had worn on the day they had first met him, glinted in the light from the lantern.

Electricity was one of the first things to go in the wake of the Invasion and one of the last to be restored; almost all electricity was now generated from Shadow magic converters, which were confined to the large cities. It seemed that the Shadows had understood what a power plant was and targeted those for destruction, causing mass power outages in the early stages of the Invasion.

"So, this is my motorcycle," Malik introduced them to his motorcycle, which was standing near the team's car. "Touch it and," Mariku suggested 'die,' but Malik dismissed him, "suffer."

Honda was staring in wide-eyed incredulity at the motorcycle―to see one was a rarity, and this one seemed to be in working condition, something that he had never seen before. It also appeared to be a model from before the Invasion, which should have been impossible. 200 years and it hadn't fallen into disrepair... He whistled at the motorcycle. "Damn."

Malik smirked. The motorcycle was what kept him in the outpost and not traveling between the small towns; lugging it around would be too much of a hassle and raise too many questions. Now that it was up and running, though, he could join the group on their excursion. He was also damn proud of his accomplishment in restoring it. "At least there's someone else around who can appreciate her."

"Why? What's so special about it?" Jounouchi asked. At Honda and Malik's glares he relented and said, "I mean, it looks nice."

::' _Looks nice.' Ahahaha,::_ Mariku laughed at Malik's dismay.

"It's from before the Invasion, isn't it?" Mai commented, circling around to look at the motorcycle.

Malik nodded. "Yes. I found her in bad condition and kept her until I could repair her." That was true; he had found the motorcycle scarce years after the Invasion and kept it by him until he found a safe place to repair it. "It's only recently that I had the tools and the opportunity to be able to repair her, though."

"That's really lucky, to find something like her." Honda walked from Mai's side to get a better look.

"Hey, can I take a ride on it, if it's all fixed up?" Jounouchi asked, and Malik was this close to annihilating him where he stood, consequences be damned.

"First, my motorcycle is a she, not an it," Malik corrected, "Second, you are absolutely not to touch her." He resisted adding on 'you technologically-incompetent gremlin.' His motorcycle was precious to him, dammit, and he wouldn't let anyone else even so much as look askance at it.

"Alright, alright. I won't touch it-her, sorry." Jounouchi put his hands in pockets and peered around Malik to see his car. "Anyways, our car looks great. We'll get you the money once we get your ID, how about that?"

:: _So he's going to make us travel with him by withholding the cash, is he now_.:: Mariku was irked, now, and ready to fight.

:: _It appears so. I'll try to convince him to hand it over sooner, though I don't know how that will go_.:: As he had decided on sticking around to get his ID anyway, Malik wasn't that worried about being paid. He figured that it would work out in the end, and, worst came to worst, he could cut his losses by killing the team and taking the car.

Malik turned around and stepped forward until he reached the team's car. He put a hand on the hood and patted it. "Your car has been good to go for two days now, so, unless Shadows have broken into the garage during that time, you can help me put my luggage and motorcycle into it and we can get going," he said, hand on car. He didn't need help loading his stuff into the car, but he did need help keeping up the appearance of being a (relatively) weak human.

"Okay, cool," Otogi said, "but you need to know that we might not be able to get you your ID. It's a very small chance of that happening, but it's there." He held his hands out apologetically.

"That's fine." Malik closed his eyes for a bit. "That is a possibility that I have considered. I regard the risk to be well worth the reward, in this case." He shrugged. "Maybe even the journey will be enjoyable."

Anzu nodded and then thought of something. "Didn't you say that you didn't want anyone to touch your motorcycle? How are we going to help you get her into the car if we aren't allowed to touch her?" she asked.

"Ah, that…" Malik trailed off. He hadn't realized that he had created a conundrum. "I'll allow Honda and Mai to touch her just this once; don't expect that offer to extend to any later time." He moved to his motorcycle, put his hands under it, and nodded at the pair he had named.

"Yeah, sure, we'll help," Honda said, and, along with Mai, moved to help Malik.

Once they loaded the car with Malik's motorcycle, the only difficulty presented was getting the rest of his luggage in. "I'll go fetch my trunk. I won't need help with that, so you can concentrate on moving your car into the street." He disappeared back into his shop, reemerged with his luggage, and, once the car was moved, put his trunk into the car.

"This will be a tight fit, so make sure you're comfortable enough for a long ride," Mai said, as she scooted over on the seats. Malik got into the car without hesitation, took seat by the window, and the car was off.

"Hey, Malik," Jounouchi started, craning his hand back from where he sat shotgun.

"Yes?" Malik was a fair bit cramped in the backseat, sat between the door and Anzu, and the car had no air conditioning.

"Why were you at the outpost?" Jounouchi put a hand on the driver's seat, earning him a swat from Honda, and said, "I mean, I know that you weren't born in a city, but why were you at that outpost? I'd've thought that you would move to a bigger town. You know, get more business that way."

"And just how would I move my motorcycle?" Malik asked. He didn't have a valid reason for choosing that particular outpost, other than it was foolishly trusting, evidenced just yesterday by the incident with his neighbor. "I found her by that town. Really, there is no other reason." He was ready to end the conversation and go back to lightly napping.

"Well, uh-"

"Jounouchi, _shut up_ and let me concentrate on driving." Honda said, keeping his eyes on the road. "Hang on, we're going over a rough patch." Ever since the Invasion, the quality of roads had deteriorated, and most were now made of gravel; only the main streets in the major cities had any pavement.

"Sorry, man," Jounouchi said, sheepish. He relaxed back into his seat. "I just wanted to know why Malik was at that outpost is all."

Malik sighed audibly and continued to look out the window.

"I'm sorry about Jounouchi," Anzu said, "He's obnoxious, but he's a good guy. Just give him some time." She put a hand on Malik's shoulder. "I didn't get along with him at first, too."

"It's not a problem." It was. "I'm used to having annoying people around."

In the front seat, Jounouchi seemed to deflate, almost like a balloon losing air, complete with squeaking noise. He pouted. In the back seat, Otogi chuckled and Mai huffed in amusement.

:: _Are you calling me annoying?_ :: Mariku had tuned out of the conversation, but was quickly becoming interested.

:: _Take it how you will_.:: It wasn't out of politeness that Malik gave that answer. He knew full well that Mariku could sense his feelings on the matter. Sometimes, no, most of the time, Mariku's existence meant he had a third sibling, just one that he shared headspace with.

"If it helps you, you can think that I'm calling the townspeople annoying," Malik said, trying to assuage the situation. He didn't want the team to turn against him if he insulted one of their members, but it seemed that they were taking it in stride.

"Don't worry about it, Jounouchi's used to us teasing him," Honda said. "If anything, this probably makes you feel like one of us to him."

"Don't encourage him!" Jounouchi whined, still deflated. "I already get enough flak from you guys, I don't need a third person!"

"A third person? What, now you can't count?" Mai asked, laughing.

"I meant a, um," here, Jounouchi tried to covertly count on his fingers, "fifth person! Yeah! That's what I meant, a fifth person!" He grinned in triumph.

Malik snicked into the back of his hand and despaired that he had fallen for the densest of the bunch. He leaned back against the seat and tried to go back to sleep, despite the bumpy ride.

Later in the day, when the team had identified a suitable spot to have lunch at, Mai approached Malik with a curious look on her face.

"Yes?" Malik asked. He was sitting on a rock, watching a turkey vulture circle overhead, his hand shading the sun from his eyes. Lunch had been a brief affair; there was neither the time nor the space for a complex meal, so canned foods it was.

Mai rummaged around in her pockets, the charm that allowed her to go inside the anti-Shadow barriers stitched over the right breast of her jacket. She pulled out a small healing charm and presented it to Malik. "Would you say that you are stronger or weaker than the person who made this?"

Malik looked over the charm, but made no move to grab it to inspect it further. "May I touch it? I can't tell what enchantments are on it without holding it myself," he lied. The vast majority of people could not tell if something was enchanted or not, and being able to tell exactly what enchantments were placed on something was a sure giveaway of powerful magic ability.

"Sure." Mai placed the charm in Malik's hand. "So. What do you think?"

Malik turned the charm over a couple times, as if he truly needed to divine the magic on it. "I would say that I am definitely more powerful than the person who made this." He handed the charm back to Mai and tilted his head. "Why do you need to ask, anyways?"

"Just making sure of something," Mai said, nodding. "I wanted to know if your magic extended to fields other than healing, like enchanting. Some people are just good at one kind of magic." It was common knowledge that Shadow magic could be used for purposes other than Shadow Games, but few people advanced their magical abilities beyond the basic.

"No. My magical abilities are fairly evenly spread," Malik said, inwardly wincing at having to admit that. He had been intending to keep the rest of his magical abilities hidden and pretend to be a healer, yet now that option had been tossed out the window. "I'm lucky in that regard." He scooted over on the rock and patted the space next to him, inviting Mai to sit next to him.

Mai took the offer and sat down. "So you're not good any particular thing?" She placed the healing charm back in her pocket.

"No, I'm good at all fields of magic." He shook his head. "You've seen what I can do."

"Even Games?" Mai asked, a bit surprised now. Kaiba Corp. had forbidden the anti-Shadow forces from using Shadow Games except in extenuating circumstances―something about how it was a guarantee that the punishment for losing or cheating was too harsh. Unsurprisingly, Shadow Games were Mariku's second favorite way of fighting, right next to outright torture.

Malik nodded. "Even Games." After 200 years, he was an experienced Player and had virtually no fear of losing. He had initiated Games with tens of other Shadows and came out the winner of them all, bar one.

"You know, Jounouchi can't start Shadow Games and he's a terrible Player." Mai looked off into the distance, where Jounouchi and Honda were chasing each other over some unimportant dispute.

That made sense and Malik agreed. "I figured, since he's not very good at magic in general," he said. Shadow Games were the most difficult branch of magic, even if, unlike in all the other fields, every person could potentially be a Player. "He's also...not the sharpest knife in the block, is he?" For Games, magical power was not as important as creativity, persistence, and general intelligence.

"He has the problem of charging in before he knows everything, and he thinks everything will work out in his favor at the end of the day," Mai said, reclining while crossed her legs. That was a fatal flaw where Games were concerned―recklessness costed otherwise easy victories. "Though, he can be perceptive when he wants to be," she admitted.

"Is that so. I wouldn't have guessed, but, then again, I've only known him for three days." Malik shrugged. "You've known him for how long now?" To Mariku he sent, :: _I've chosen the worst one to fall for, haven't I._ :: All he got in response was a feeling of deep amusement.

Still staring at the scene at the camp, where Otogi had joined in on the chase, Mai said, "I've been on his team for about three years. He's grown a lot in those years." Her voice wavered slightly and she cast her gaze down. "This team is the only ones that would truly accept a Shadow." She had tried with so many other teams; a Shadow of her strength, friendly to humans, was rarity and Kaiba Corp. had wanted so badly for her to join a team, any team. Finally, she had been placed with Jounouchi, who was fresh out of training, who didn't care that she wasn't human.

Malik hummed in sympathy. That was the main reason he did not want to reveal that he was a Shadow; fear of not being accepted. He could tolerate being ostracized for things he had done, but not things he had yet to do. It was also why Mariku was a closely-held secret: before the Invasion, people like him had been the villains of horror movies; now, he was afraid that no one had any idea of what his condition entailed. He didn't know which one was worse.

"If you're afraid of me judging you for being a Shadow―don't be," Malik said. It would be hypocritical to the max, for one. "It's not something that I'm concerned about. This will be a short trip, and then we'll part ways."

"Thanks. As you said, it's not a big deal, but some people treat it like it is." Mai was back to looking at the rest of the team.

"Don't pay attention to them, then. I certainly wouldn't." And here Malik was back to lying. It seemed to be the theme of the day.

Jounouchi waved at the pair from afar, motioning them to come back. "Well, it looks like we've got to go," Mai said.

In the evening, the team had yet again separated into two groups―Malik and everyone else. The original team was gathered around a lantern, having watched Malik go back to hang around the car. Dinner, like lunch, had been quick and to the point.

Jounouchi stretched his arms behind his head and yawned. "Why do you guys think Malik's gone off by himself again?" He himself was a social person, an extrovert.

"Probably because he's tired of all of our shit," Otogi said, sliding against a rock into a squat.

"Yeah, we can be pretty exhausting when we want to be," Anzu said, as she packed their used cans into a bag. No sense in leaving evidence of their passing when it could be used to track them. "Maybe he's just an introvert. He was pretty quiet after lunch."

Honda frowned. "That's cause he was _sleeping_."

"I don't know, but I can respect anyone who can sleep through your driving. It was all 'bump, bump, bump'!" Jounouchi made up and down motions with his hand for emphasis. He dodged a swat from Honda.

"He didn't seem that tired when I talked to him this afternoon, so who knows." Mai shrugged.

Jounouchi looked up at the night sky. Uninhibited by Earthly light, the stars shone. "Why do you guys think he was at that town?"

"Didn't we already discuss this?" Otogi asked. "He said that it was convenient."

"Why're you still thinking about it?" Honda was curious; he thought that the topic was done with, but if Jounouchi, usually the densest of the group, thought that there was something more to it….

"No, I mean, shouldn't another group have offered him what we did? We're definitely not the first ones to go through that town." Tonight, it seemed, Jounouchi was more insightful than normal. "He's a bit weird, now that I think about it." Free from Malik's confounding omegan scent, he could actually think.

Mai took a deep breath. When Jounouchi got an idea into his head, he latched onto it like a limpet and refused to let go. "And we're not all a bit weird?"

"Well, yeah, but Malik's an extra bit weird."

"I talked to him earlier, and he says that he's human, if that's what you're talking about," Mai said. "I don't know if we should take him at his word, since his whole situation is suspicious." She wasn't entirely used to humans and their conventions, but she was certain that omegas, on the whole, did not concern themselves with fighting Shadows. Turning into a human had been confusing at first, what with the four genders that humans had; Shadows had no sexual organs, instead relying on other species to reproduce and then infecting them. Her pre-Shadow existence as a bird she could barely remember, so she discounted that.

"Just because he's a single omega doesn't mean that he's suspicious. Maybe he just hasn't found anyone he likes," Anzu said, having finished collecting the utensils. "He looks like he's our age and we haven't settled down yet."

"I wasn't talking about him being single―I was talking about him knowing how to repair our car. We don't even know how to do that beyond the basics," Jounouchi said. The team all knew how to change the tires on the car, but had little knowledge of the inner workings of their car. "How does he know if he's never been outside that outpost?"

"Wow, you actually said something smart for once," Honda said, and sat down again, ready for a longer conversation. He dodged a kick to the side from Jounouchi.

Anzu looked as if she had an epiphany. "Maybe he came from a different town, originally?" She put the bag of utensils and cans down on the ground.

"That can't be it; he said that his parents don't trust the government," Otogi said, remembering their conversation from two days ago.

"It could be that his parents are dead." It wasn't unusual for people to die young. "Most omegas stay with their parents until they're married, so that would explain why we didn't meet them." Mai didn't know what to think of that human quirk; what sort of bird watched over their young until they found a mate?

"That's sad," Anzu said, looking at the space between her feet, "I hope that he was just separated from them."

"If that's the case, and his parents are dead, then we should be his new family," Jounouchi suggested.

"I thought that we were going to drop him off at one of the big cities, not keep him," Mai said, "We can't be adopting all the strays we find."

Jounouchi jumped to his feet. "What if he wants to join the team? We don't have a dedicated mechanic yet and he seems pretty good at his job." He seemed excited at the prospect of Malik staying on with the team.

Mai considered this for a moment. "You're right. I guess I'll accept him if he decides to stay. But, what about everyone else?" Malik had said that he was leaving the team once they arrived at the city, so she wasn't too worried about him deciding to remain.

"Sure!" Anzu was the first to volunteer her opinion.

Otogi nodded and Honda said, "Yeah, that sounds great."

Malik leaned against the side of the car facing away from the team, and took out his cellphone. Fueled by magic, the phone could be used to call anyone else who had a cellphone synced to it. At the moment, the only others he was in regular contact with were his siblings. It was they who he wanted to talk to on that night. He sent a jolt of magic through the phone, activating it.

"Malik! You haven't called in such a long time," Isis said, voice crackling with static.

Malik grimaced; he loved his siblings with all of his heart, but sometimes they could be a bit much. "Hello to you too, sister. And brother."

"Are you in danger?" Rishid asked, and Malik sighed. Had it really been so long since he last called them that they assumed he called only because he needed something?

"No." Despite being on the phone, Malik shook his head. "What, now I can't call without you two worrying that your baby brother has gotten himself into trouble? I wanted to call you to update you on my situation."

"Have you left that town?" Isis asked. She had joined one of the larger cities a while back, almost fifteen years ago. "Were the Alphas too much?" He had complained to his siblings about the forwardness of the town's Alphas before, so her guess wasn't too out of left field.

"Yes to the first one and no to the second. Now is not the time to tell you in full, as I don't know how long I have for this call, but I joined an anti-Shadow team until at least the next large city."

"...Why?" Rishid's concern was evident in his voice. He wasn't a big talker, but his heart more than made up for his lack of words.

Malik debated about whether to tell them about his crush, and decided against it. "I wanted a change of pace; small town life is not for me. They offered to help me obtain an ID, so I temporarily joined them."

"That's good to hear. You must be happy," Isis said, and Malik looked to the sky. He had conflicting feelings―would he have to leave his somewhat itinerant lifestyle behind and settle down, permanently, in one of the cities? If so, he would try to escape the whole shebang and retain his freedom.

"Again, yes and no." Malik took a deep breath in. "The members are nice enough; four of them are Alphas, and, of those, three of them are interested in me." He heard two sharp intakes of breath.

:: _And you're interested in one of them._ :: Mariku was eager to join in on the conversation, despite only tolerating both Rishid and Isis.

:: _Did I ask your opinion?_ :: Malik didn't need Mariku edging on the conversation. "But, you needn't worry about that. They're all polite," Malik wasn't sure that was the right word, but he continued on, "and they haven't caused any problems for me." With that, he lied to his siblings.

"If that's the case, then I want you to call us more often. Almost a year-" had it really been that long? "-without calling us is unacceptable," Isis chided.

"Sorry. It must have slipped my mind." To get Isis off of his case, Malik said, "Anyways, the anti-Shadow team that I'm with has a Shadow as a member."

"Really? That is brave of them, to cooperate with an organization that wants most of us dead," Isis said. She had not revealed her status as a Shadow to her neighbors yet and had no plans to do so. It was partially because of prejudice and partially because she wanted to protect her brothers from scrutiny.

"Mai's a forward person. She's approached me under the suspicion that I'm a Shadow," Malik said, and looked into the inky darkness of the night. The moon was not bright enough to illuminate the landscape, and the stars were certainly too far and too weak to be of much help. Luckily, he had enhanced vision, courtesy of his Shadow biology.

Rishid considered this for a moment, turning Malik's statement over in his head. "How powerful is she?"

"Weaker than all three of us. I don't think that she ate the golden fruit." Malik smirked to himself. He was the most powerful Shadow he had ever encountered, including his siblings, though he had heard rumors that two Shadows, Ryou and Yugi, belonging to the anti-Shadow forces, could give him a run for his money.

"We haven't found anyone else who even knows about that fruit; all the other Shadows have been infected." Isis had talked to other Shadows in the city, those who elected to help with research instead of with fighting, and none of them had heard of the golden fruit.

Malik looked around the car at hearing the crunch of boots on dust and pebbles, and found that the team was heading back to their car. "...It seems that the team is coming this way. We'll have to talk later. Goodbye, Isis, Rishid." He ceased the flow of magic into the phone and quickly pocketed it.


End file.
